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An essential for anyone who listens to anything that isn't prog

Before the Sex Pistols, there were tall magicians who went on stage surrounded with mile-long keyboards and musical skills that surpassed most others, who played a 20 minute solo, and then went onto another 20 minute solo, and another, and another. A musician was someone who had to be incredibly talented and inventive. But then came the Sex Pistols. With snarling vocals, and loose, gritty playing, the Sex Pistols were something new altogether, and quickly did away with the magicians and their keyboards, and brought forth a generation of rebels.This album encapsulates the whole punk scene from back then. The sound and mixing of the album is very good quality, as opposed to what you might expect. The playing is fantastic, probably due to Sid Vicious not actually playing on the recording (I imagine Steve Jones played bass on this), and every song is an anthem. This album inspired generations of bands all across the globe.Show it to your kids, show it to your grandkids, show it to your great-grandkids when you're a disembodied brain floating in a jar. This CD is an essential for everyone.

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Quiet possibly the most important British punk album of all time.

"Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols" is the first and only studio album by British punk pioneers, the Sex Pistols. It was released in 1977 on Virgin Records and produced by Chris Thomas & Bill Price. The line-up for the album was Johnny Rotten (vocals), Steve Jones (guitar/bass), Glen Matlock (bass), Sid Vicious (bass) and Paul Cook (drums).

If you asked people of all walks of life to name a definitive punk rock album, it would depend on which side of the pond you were on. On the British side, most would say the Sex Pistols' "Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols" as the album that springs to mind.

The fact that this is the only official studio album by the band speaks volumes on how Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren manipulated the press into hyping the band as whatever they wanted to say. The Sex Pistols as a band was never shy of controversy, the Bill Grundy escapade where Steve Jones engaged in a foul tirade to sailing down the Thames on the Queen's Silver Jubilee, playing "God Save the Queen". But enough of the history of the band, what about the songs?

"Holidays in the Sun" is a political song about the Berlin Wall, which separated East and West Germany beginning with construction in 1961 until reunification in 1990. Communist East Germany erected the wall, and this is what the Pistols are singing about. Legend has it that Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren sent the band on a holiday to Berlin and their experiences are reflected here. "I'm looking over the wall and they're looking at me" is probably related to the differences between east and West, with East Germany's Communist iron rule being completely different from the freedom of Democratic West Germany. It's a great song, too, with a classic punk riff from Steve Jones and Johnny Rotten's iconic vocals.

"Bodies" has Rotten's warbling vocals all over it in that cockney accent of his, backed by Jones' punk-laden riffs. This is where the Pistols were at their best and the interaction between Jones & Cook's backing vocals with Rotten's ranting is excellent. It's a song about abortion, whether you believe in it or not. Here, Rotten is saying that it's bad to bring a child into the world with its current issues, and he's also saying that it's bad to abort the foetus of an unborn child. The Pistols are leaving it up to you to decide and they're not taking either side.

"No Feelings" is one of my favourite Sex Pistols songs. It's pure British punk rock - which is completely different to that over the pond in the United States. The Sex Pistols are angry, the guitar is loud and Rotten has that snarl about him which says he just doesn't care what you think. He's basically saying that he'll do what he wants and doesn't really care whether you like him for it or not. Try listening to a band that call themselves punk, like Blink-182 for example, and then listen to this song. You'll get the idea of what punk really is once you've done that.

"Liar" is an upbeat song with some great vocals from Johnny Rotten. His classic warble is present here and musically, this has everything even if Rotten does go off the handle a little bit. That shouldn't stop you thinking it's a good song because it really is a good song. Lyrically, it's directed at the band's manager, Malcolm McLaren who fired Glen Matlock and replaced him with Sid Vicious, who was actually a drummer. Malcolm told the band he didn't have anything to do with it but they always knew the real story.

It's a little-known fact that "God Save the Queen" reached No.1 in the UK singles charts when it was released to coincide with the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977 but it was kept off the top spot by the BBC, which banned it from airplay. Rod Stewart's "I Don't Want to Talk About It" was the official No.1 single and it took the BBC a further 24 years to admit to this happening. About the song, Johnny Rotten said "You don't write "God Save the Queen" because you hate the English race. You write a song like that because you love them, and you're fed up with them being mistreated."

"Problems" begins with a great riff that has an interesting hook on the end of it which is still echoing in your ears even when Rotten's vocals come in and the guitar is quietened down. I like the guitar solo during the bridge on this song which is proof that the band could actually play, contrary to belief by a lot of people back then. Here, Johnny Rotten asks the question "What's your problem" and answers it with "the problem is you", making it self evident as to what the song is about.

"Seventeen" is one of those songs that you can love or hate and I love it. It's about being young and being bored with nothing to do because you can't be bothered doing anything. As Johnny Rotten says in the lyrics, "I'm a lazy sod". It's actually a play on words and directed at Sid Vicious. You can even hear Rotten sing "I'm a lazy Sid" in the song, too. At two minutes long, it's the shortest song on the album but one of the real surprises on there.

"Anarchy in the U.K." is a punk rock song that needs no introduction. It's a song about how the punk movement was at the time with the kids feeling angry at the lack of jobs, poor education and hardly any prospects for the future. I'm not sure that the band wanted to incite anarchy in the United Kingdom but for many years afterwards, punk rockers could be seen with anarchy badges or the anarchy sign painted on the back of sleeveless jean jackets. It's a song that has been covered by a lot of bands, most notably American thrash metal outfit, Megadeth.

"Submission" is the weak song on the album - most have them, and "Never Mind the Bollocks" is no exception. It's more rock orientated than anything else on the album and the little guitar solo over the chorus just doesn't work. I do like the story behind the song though; Malcolm McLaren wanted the band to write a song called "Submission" because he thought it would help sell clothes and equipment at his S&M shop, Sex. The band, however, thought otherwise and wrote a song about a submarine mission instead.

"Pretty Vacant" is my favourite Sex Pistols song. It's easily one of the best punk rock songs of all time and epitomises everything that the genre was in the UK back in the late 1970s. The lyrics are simple but very effective, especially in the chorus where the whole band comes together in unison. It's a song about teenage rebellion against the system, basically telling the kids to do something with their lives or let the system decide for them; it's their choice.

"New York" is a song about the difference between British punk rock and American punk rock. Bands like the Ramones, Blondie and the New York Dolls were completely different from British acts such as the Pistols, the Clash and the Damned, and it's one of those bands, the New York Dolls, which gets the attention here as some of their songs are listed in the lyrics. I'd like to think it's basic humour but it could also have been a dig at the American punk rock band.

"EMI" is a song that attacks the record company which signed the band and then fired them not long after. The main riff is magnificent on this song and Jones' solo in the middle fits the song perfectly. As the story goes, the band signed with EMI, recorded "Anarchy in the U.K." and then appeared on the Bill Grundy show. After that the band was subsequently dropped with the record shelved.

In summary, there will never quite be another time like the birth of punk rock in the UK in the late 1970s. For those of us that witnessed it, it was a scary, joyous time. "Ever feel like you've been cheated?" Johnny Rotten once stated. With every Sex Pistol present on the album (Jones played bass on most tracks, Matlock on "Anarchy in the UK", Vicious on "Bodies") and an album of great songs, who would? Not me, that's for sure.

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Loud

The dystopian rubble strewn future year of 1977. A time of economic crisis, moral panic, Roger Moore playing James Bond in a pair of cream flares, and a very special birthday for the Queen. A bunch of scruffy herberts known as The Sex Pistols have become public enemy number one with some prompting and scheming from their drawling manager Malcom McLaren. Harpo Marx coiffured McLaren is a shrewd but strange character who can talk for days without actually saying anything in his sedated politely indifferent way. He strongly suggests the group are a situationist art joke conceived by him and his genius but although The Sex Pistols are not destined to last long (drugs, the wrong girlfriends, egos...) they have the last laugh on their critics by producing one of the most famous British albums of all time. A record that crackles with jarring and stuttering blistering energy and raw brash ripping noise and feels like a defiant bedraggled last stand against something. An outpouring of strange chaos and hopeless frustration. Perhaps it was a symbolic wardrobe wedged against the door of the coming electronic computer age which would dominate music and make young people steadfastly stay in their bedrooms rather than run wild on litter blown streets with safety pins through their hooters. You wouldn't want these metal lobed characters living next door to you or running a posh music school but against all the odds they made an album that is remembered as being great and important and influential (Nirvana, The Prodigy, Noel Gallagher's pale imitation Lydonesque sneer etc). Of particular importance to the group is their lead singer John Lydon. Lydon's theatrical death white visage stage presence is inspired by Oliver playing Richard III. He's vulgar and looks like he's just been dug up (if Lush were around in 1977 they would really have their work cut out with Johnny Rotten) but he's funny. He's like the Cryptkeeper in EC Comics Tales From the Crypt, a ghoulish ghostly wag with his tongue somewhere in his cheek.

The Sex Pistols are at the forefront of a DIY ethic in music (you really don't have to know many chords in punk) and Lydon wants those who feel disenfranchised to express the creative potential they never felt they had or would be able to use. It's a mixed blessing and results in some positively awful music and people sloshing around in the wake of The Sex Pistols. Lydon probably (I think) has his heart in the right place and is dreaming of a better future for everyone. A future where class divisions are not so pronounced and there are reality television programmes where Cannon and Ball are dropped into an Australian jungle and forced to eat insects and share a campsite with someone who was in Coronation Street in 1978. This is an album I was constantly subjected to one summer when a friend kept playing it every time I went around his house. It was a racket at first but I soon realised parts of it were amazing. I think some of the songs suffer from that early Manic Street Preachers syndrome (Generation Terrorists) of morphing into one and sounding the same but then this is The Sex Pistols. It's a rollercoaster that it always going downwards. You couldn't imagine them all sitting on barstools doing a ballad in pastel shirts. Holidays in the Sun, our opening song, is about package holidays and in particular how annoying it is when the suitcase containing your underwear ends up in the wrong country. Or maybe not. It begins with the marching of feet and is a vibrant and raucous song with Lydon's deranged taunting, cynical and fast dementoid vocals. "A cheap holiday in other people's misery! I don't wanna holiday in the sun, I wanna go to the new Belsen, I wanna see some history cos now I got a reasonable economy!" It's like being mugged by someone who doesn't take your money and restrains from doing any harm. The Sex Pistols are just pretending to mug you. There are no blue skies or stars in this record. Only dark ominous clouds, thunder, lightning and the occasional trawl through the gutter.

"She was a girl from Birmingham, She'd just had an abortion. She was a case of insanity, Her name was Pauline she lived in a tree!" This is not a quote from the collected works of Oscar Wilde but an extract from Bodies, the second song here. Bodies is very abrasive and screechy and starts off rather brilliantly but it all becomes a bit much in the end and the lyrics are rather depressing and out to shock. Lydon's wit deserts him here and it eventually feels like someone hitting you over the head until you want them to stop. No Feelings is (what else?) loud and to the point, clocking in at under three minutes. You are happily safe from a 25 minute guitar solo on this album. Lydon's lyrics are playful as he declares he is only in love with himself and is beautiful. He was the Devil incarnate at the time so you get the joke. Liar is a rabble rouser with (as the title suggests) frequent use of the word "Liar" and a relatively catchy tune as far as The Sex Pistols did catchy. God Save The Queen is the greatest of all Sex Pistols songs and was set to be number one for the Queen's Silver Jubilee before someone dodgy chart rigging put paid to that. It has a fantastic and immediate guitar intro and Lydon is at his best. "God save the Queen, the fascist regime, they made you a moron, potential H-bomb. God save the Queen, she ain't no human being, there is no future in England's dreaming." This is my favourite song on the album by some distance and I love the staccato machine gun moment in time stops and starts of the blunt guitars with Lydon's ramblings. "We're the flowers in the dustbin, we're the poison in your human machine, we're the future, your future."

Problems is ok/meh and another metal clanging waltzer where Lydon urges the listener to pull their socks up and sort out their own problems while Seventeen is a decent anthem with decent lyrics about being lazy sods on speed or something and not being as clever as you think you are. Anarchy In The UK is, like God Save the Queen and Pretty Vacant, the song everyone will know here and amazing. Lydon's deranged chuckle at the start and then a mighty clarion call and mission statement. "I am an antichrist, I am an anarchist. Don't know what I want but I know how to get it, I wanna destroy the passerby 'cause I wanna be anarchy, no dogsbody." This is not a man you'll ever see behind the bakery counter at Asda with a little hat on bagging hot cross buns. I like the way Lydon holds onto and stretches out his lyrics here. He's very good at what he does. Or whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat he does as he might sing. Theatrical and melodramatic in a punchy and offhand way. Submission is the longest song here and has a full blown orchestra and a harp solo with children on recorders. Only joking. It is though more sedate by Sex Pistols standards and very red lit and riffwaved for them. Lydon's lyrics are ok here although he always makes me think of Captain Nemo with the words. "You're sitting it out in heaven above - there's a mystery under the sea, under the water, come share it." Maybe he did secretly dream of creating a new world under the sea like that James Bond villain Carl Stromberg. An underwater city. Well, everyone needs to have their dreams.

Pretty Vacant naturally has the most recognisable and immediate riff here, the chiming guitars are worthy of Johnny Marr and make a mockery of the widely held view at the time that the group couldn't play a note and had no conception of their instruments, like monkeys trying to play Connect 4. Lydon is very, er, John Lydon both in the lyrics and his energetic and committed vocal performance. "There's no point in asking you'll get no reply, oh just remember, don't decide. I got no reason, it's all too much, you'll always find us out to lunch." It's a great song. New York is so-so and a dig at the New York Dolls, a glammy punky American group. I don't know much about The New York Dolls but I've heard of them. "An imitation from New York, you're made in Japan from cheese and chalk." Finally there is EMI, a swipe at their record company. It's a big raspberry at their bosses and not a great song by any means. This is an extraordinary and very British album with stupendous highs and frozen moments in time and it only suffers slightly from some of the songs tending to sound the same. Still excellent though. "Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?" said Lydon at the end of the (geriatric reunions notwithstanding) last Sex Pistols concert at the Winterland Theater in 1978. That quote certainly doesn't apply to this album.

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the greatest album from 1977 - the year that Punk went overground

The key moment from 1976 was the opening shot fired by the Sex Pistols - Anarchy In The UK. Its title alone unsettled a nervous Establishment, threatened in recent years by nothing more harrowing than men wearing lipstick with girly haircuts. With just one sweeping statement, the band put the shock back in rock. This was music that your parents hated, your younger brothers and sisters couldn't comprehend and which the complacent rock scene initially failed to appreciate. At last, the seventies generation had something to brag about. The Sex Pistols lived in an alternative universe to conventional rock, symbolised by ripped jeans, abundant swearing and an absolute hatred for everything.

They also set out to d-e-s-t-r-o-y-yy-y... Right from the start it was obvious that Anarchy In The UK was no ordinary 45. The song was considered by some as an incitement to the nation's youth to take protest to the streets, whilst others saw it for what it really was - paramount to the Second Coming. With its thought-provoking comments and references to the M.P.L.A, U.D.A. and I.R.A, rock's voice as a vehicle through which to channel political views had returned. GodSave The Queen followed in its controversial footsteps by drawing comparisons between the monarch and a fascist regime, concluding with Johnny Rotten's classic sign-off that the Queenhad no future.

Despite the familiarity of three singles on the LP prior to its release (Pretty Vacant was the third), hearing Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols for the first time was earth-shattering, life-defining. From the opening feet-stamping Holidays In The Sun (the fourth 45), the bloody and shocking Bodies (a tale of a girl with an aborted foetus in a carrier-bag), through to the closing EMI (sticking two-fingers up, plus a raspberry, to their former record company), music had rarely felt so violent. To the observant, the album took on greater significance. This was nothing less than Britain's declaration of independence, after recent years of US dominance by AOR. It came, ironically, via an American concept that embraced stripped to basics rock and most importantly, with bags of that vital ingredient - attitude.

Over thirty years since its release, the adrenalin surge that kicks off Holidays In The Sun still sends shivers down the spine, the spiteful hatred spitting from Liar and No Feelings induce palpitations and that revolution in the air buzz on Anarchy In The UK makes hairs stand on end. It was apparent that this set carried an important message that MUST be heard - true in 1977 and, more so today.

These twelve songs didn't just change the future direction of rock they saved it from premature death. Those that get excited at the prospects of standing next to a detonator will understand the utter relevance of this LP. Sense the danger, feel the heat, touch lethal electrification of the spirit - it doesn't get more explosive than this.

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The Best Punk Album Ever

Never Mind The B******* was by far one of the best punk rock albums every released. The Sex Pistols music was one of a kind which could never be recreated. The screamed and shouted vocals were brilliant as was the energy they put into all of their songs.God Save The Queen was one of their best known tracks and was what they encompassed.. Anarchy and total disregard for people in authority. Bodies, Anarchy In The Uk and Pretty Vacant were excellent tracks and the music through the whole track was really powerfull stuff.Johhny Rottens singing was one of a kind and the bands powerful guitar playing and style was amazing and the drum playing had a very hard hitting beat to it as well.For any aging punk rockers out there like myself, this is a must have for your collection and is well worth the money and i would recommend it.

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An immensely influential band,an incredibly disappointing album

1977 was a year in which many a great band would release an album,many of them debut records. Indeed, the year introduced the record world to The Clash,The Stranglers,The Damned, and in one of the most famous instances, The Sex Pistols.

Formed by manager Malcolm McLaren,basically as a promotional tool for his business partner Vivien Westwood's boutique named Sex,the band consisted of 'vocalist' John 'Johnny Rotten' Lydon,bassist Glen Matlock,guitarist Steve Jones and drummer Paul Cook, and would become known as the Sex Pistols. Naturally the group wore all clothes from Sex, most famously Lydon's 'DESTROY' T-Shirt which featured a Swastika and upturned cross. The band were basically better at riding the wave created by controversy than they were at playing, but a few good songs, slating the British Monarchy and calling for Anarchy, and the band were nigh on superstars without ever releasing a record. Their first single,Anarchy In The UK, caused a storm, and they were dropped by original label EMI because workers refused to produce it. After McLaren tried in vain with Clash manager Bernie Rhodes to secure a joint record deal on the back of the disasterous Anarchy Tour, which saw the bands famously banned from playing several venues due to the public outcry over the Pistols, and the infamous incident where TV host Bill Grundy goaded the band into being as offensive as possible on TV, the band had essentially secured legendary status without actually releasing a long player.

When Virgin eventually did pick them up, releasing a few singles, it wasn't long before more changes were on the way, as Matlock was ejected, the band claim for not being punk enough, he claiming because he wouldn't do what Malcolm told him. Matlock was the musically talented member of the band, and replacing him was always going to be a mean feat, but Lydon demanded his friend, and punk crowd stallwart John 'Sid Vicious' Ritchie become the bass player. Sid was famous in the punk circuit, and his installment brought the band back instant street cred that was being lost to bands such as The Clash and The Damned, but there was one problem. Sid couldn't play the bass. It's said that for the first few months, he tried ardently to learn, but his life was interrupted by a certain Nancy Spungen, whom became his girlfriend after Lydon shrugged her off. She took him from experimenting with drugs to being a full blown junkie, and he was more often than not far too out of it to attempt to play bass on the record, so Steve Jones played his parts as well as his own guitar.

The album roars to life with the single Holidays In The Sun, a song that starts with the sound of marching feet, and quickly kicks into Steve Jones guitar as Lydon wails "cheap holidays in other people's misery" as the song rants on about visiting Germany, with references to the Berlin wall and Nazi Death Camp Belsen, something the band would also go further in-depth with on the non album track Belsen Was A Gas. The song is basically a catchy riff with Lydon's snarl first being introduced, and while not really a classic on level of some of the other songs on here, it at least qualifies as being pretty good, and it will stay in your head for quite a while after it's over.

Sadly, the next song,Bodies, an abortion rant, just seems to be trying to be controversial for the sake of it. Lydon's voice, which is both the band's strongest factor, due to it's piercing nature, and it's weakness, due to it on some occasions just sounding like a drunken idiot, is at it's worst here as he tries his utmost to be as offensive as possible. This is a major detraction from the band in general. From the Destroy T-Shirts to constant Nazi undertones and more, the band really do just appear to be trying to be controversial for the sake of controversy. Fair play to them in that it worked, much like it has for people like Eminem and Marylin Manson, but it's still no real subsitute for good music.

Tracks 6 and 8 are where it's at really,God Save The Queen, truly the band's masterpiece, is here in all it's sneering glory. Lydon rips the British Monarchy, denouncing the Queen as "no human being" and declares that there is no future in England's dreaming. Indeed, when Matlock was still in the band, the song went by the title of 'No Future', and one can only assume the title was changed to grab more attention, which is quite sad because the song deserves attention for it's own merits. Infamously, this single was released to coincide with the Queen's silver Jubilee, and it's often speculated that it should have taken the number one slot in the charts, but the powers that be declared it unsuitable and whatever did make number 1 somehow sold a massive amount of units mysteriously, and the song had to make do with second place. Anarchy In The UK takes up slot number 8, and it's another masterstroke in the band's CV. While this is a blatant attempt at courting controversy, it's so bloody good that it doesn't matter, from Lydon's opening roar of "I am an antichrist" to his finish of "DESTROY", the song is menacing,nasty and in almost every way perfect.

The next real hit is the single Pretty Vacant, which lyrically doesn't push the same buttons as the rest of the singles,but I love it solely on the basis of the guitar intro, which is truly one of the more inspired instrumental parts on any Pistols track. The end to the song, with Lydon announcing "we don't care" in his unimitable stlye is what sets it apart from a lot of the other songs.

The final good moment would be EMI Unlimited Edition, which as you may have guessed, is ripping into former record label EMI for chucking the band after one single. Lyrically it's good, because it's witty and quite well thought out, but doesn't try too hard for shock value.

No Feelings and Problems, are both decently crafted tunes musically, featuring some nice riffs, but lyrically the pair of them are garbage, and sound far too much like the 10,000 imitators of the band. While I realise this isn't their fault, it still effects my enjoyment of the track.

The rest of the songs,New York,Submission,Liar and Seventeen are just bland filler, with decent enough guitar from Jones, but lacking the edge of the other songs, or any real purpose, which hinders Lydon's lyrics. I suppose in hindsight, given the fate of Sid, New York should take on some significance, but the fact it's a crap song really hinders any attempt at this.

On the whole, Never Mind the Bollocks is a mediocre album. 4 great songs, 2 ok ones and 4 crap ones. This has got to be one of the most blatant instances of 'filler' tracks on a record, and I would assume these were ones written, or completed after the departure of the talented Matlock. The fact is, that by the end of the record, Lydon's vocals, which when they are good they are awesome, have become tired in your ears, and Jones guitar, so fresh and sharp on the best songs, sound overdone and blurry.

While I would recommend the album to anyone with an interest in the Punk Scene, this would be purely on the strength of the singles, and had I been around in 1977 and already owned the singles, I would have felt very short changed upon buying this hideously overrated record.

Not long after it's release, the band folded, this being their only studio album. They went on to fairly splintered fates, Sid dying not too long after, with Lydon forming PiL, and last beeing seen on reality TV show 'Im a Celebrity - Get Me Out of Here' displaying what an absolute joke he has actually become and Steve Jones last being heard of playing on an Ashley Hamilton song and promoting the Towers of London. I have no idea what the hell happened to Paul Cook.

John Lydon often claims a lot things were down to him, most of them are crap. While he can claim his band started the wave of punk, they ended up leading to the creation of bands a lot better than themselves, and they couldn't even put out one completely good record. While this is a worthy purchase, especially at the current price(I bought mine for four pounds, granted Im in the UK, and we get the proper album cover). But to be honest, there are much better punk albums out there, and this is probably only sold due to it's reputation.

Review also posted at Epinions.com

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Practically every modern British rock band owes a debt of gratitude to the Sex Pistols. Given the heritage of this band, it's kinda surprising, after all, the Pistols were a manufactured band, like Hear'Say or god knows who else, and they also suffered from one major drawback....they couldn't play. Somehow, this band, the most influential band since the Beatles, managed to overcome that. The Pistols were accused of not being able to play. Listen to this album, their only 'proper' album, I think (although I can't claim that to be hard fact), and you'll hear what was basically the biggest revolution in music since rock n' roll finally blasted away the appalingness of drivel like 'How much is that doggy' and all the other songs your grandparents would find wholesome. Picture the scene...ok, for me this is purely hypothetical because I was born in the same year Sid Vicious died, but hey, I'm making an effort. Anyway, picture the scene. In 1976, the music industry was...well, kinda like now, actually. Dismal, talentless vocal pop acts like Abba. Music that was safe and liked by your parents. Or you had stadium rock, where 40-year-old men afflicted with mullets played 3 chords to a stadium filled with scouts or Sunday school pupils. Now imagine you switch on your radio one morning, and suddenly you hear some tuneless yob shouting out, with just a smidgen of irony, 'God save the queen!' The guitar's haywire, raw and dirty, and lacks technical accomplishment. And you know what? It sounds great. Unbelievably fantastic. This is exactly the sort of song that will piss off everybody, especially the record companies. The Sex Pistols were by no means the first punk band in the UK, but they were the first who spat it firmly in the face of the Establishment, the sort of people who joined the Young Conservatives. Suddenly, someone young had made an album, which actually reflected the mood of the time. Ok, this isn't meant to be a biography of the Pistols, but I think this album needs to be reviewed in context. Make no mistake, for many people, this was very new. Now, every band seems to say what they want, but in 1976 this wasn't the case. So then, the album. One of the best intros I've heard on an album (and I really go for that sort of thing), 'Holidays in the Sun'. Lovely marching sound effect, a solid beat, really makes you excited, and then climaxing with the guitar release. Stunning. Listen to it. 'Bodies', the second track, is a tad heavy and overdoes the swearing (I'm not a prude, but I think it's unoriginal), but then again, people rarely swore in music at the time. Again, lovely throaty guitar sound, really captures a sense of fury over the subject of abortion. 'No Feelings' is a pacy rock n' roll track with a great solo, makes you wanna laugh to if you listen to the lyrics. 'God Save The Queen' also has a great intro, in fact it was used on the Fast Show Live, and really sums up the attitude. 'Anarchy in the UK' is also wonderful, if a tad overrated. You can tell Johnny is really enjoying singing this, and it's got that bite to it which makes it a very listenable song. Finally, the other highlight is 'EMI', where the lads stick two fingers up at their producers, a brave move (but I can't help thinking EMI planned it that way). It's not the greatest punk album ever, but it is the definitive one. Buy it, even if just to say you heard the Sex Pistols.

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Britain in the 1970s was in the doldrums - there was mass unemployment, strikes, power cuts and high taxes - and the young people of Britain really didn't have much to look forward to. The rebellion of the 1950s and 70s had disappeared - rock n roll rebels replaced by "corporate" rock like Yes and Pink Floyd. The punk rock backlash of 1976-77 was just what was needed, not only for millions of disillusioned youngsters but for popular music in general. At the forefront uprising were the Sex Pistols - four angry young playing angry, loud and (for it's time) shocking rock music, their frustration and anger vented by snarling frontman Johnny Rotten. The Sex Pistols were the original and best punk rock group, swearing on early evening television (what did happen to Bill Grundy?) and getting themselves fired from a succession of record companies. This album, released in 1977, was their first and only real offering on vinyl and at the time was considered to be a real shocker. 23 years after it's original release this all-time classic punk record still delivers with plenty of aplomb although I can't help but feel that now, in the days of post-grunge, that this great album sounds more like a mainstream rock album than what it would have sounded like in 1977. But let's put things into context here: when you think that it had been a mere seven years since the Beatles had broken up, and at a time when the charts were dominated by the likes of Abba, Cliff Richard, ELO, 10cc and the Bee Gees, this album must have seemed incredibly outrageous and offensive. With the passing of time, it is still a great record but perhaps not as shocking as it was back then. This is without doubt THE definitive album of the punk genre and as a musical snapshot of the punk era, this album cannot be equalled or bettered.

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Thrashing guitars, frenetic drumming, screaming lyrics, This album is a display of Punk Rock at it's best! Without a shadow of a doubt this record changed everything! Listening to it now, you realise how good a record it actually is! The music was raw, with titles such as God Save the Queen and the abortion song(Bodies) were there to shock. Production was not of the greatest but the record still stands today as a punk classic and almost every Punk Rock fan admires there music! There songs sound fantastic. All of the songs on this album are very powerful. It's annoying so many people think the Sex Pistols were just an 'outrageous' band who couldn't play their instruments. The truth is this album is an all-time great, because each song is a classic. So many groups have tried to portray themselves as having an attitude, yet the sex pistols differ from all these acts, because they are direct, real, & to the point which is an ability not many groups have today! My personal favourites on the album have to be Pretty Vacant and Anarchy in the U.K which are there two most famous and popular songs nowadays!If you get the chance listen to some of there earlier stuff as it is great! This is punk at its very best and listening to it, you can see why they are so influential to other rock bands. My advice to you is Buy it!

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Comparing the Pistols with todays bands is like finding out when you 8 that Santa does not really exist. And listening to Never... just enforces that idea with unquestionable authority. Never... is the best compilation of songs I have ever heard. There are no soppy 'I love you' songs or 'I'm sorry for cheating on you with the maid' songs. Which todays bands seem obsessed with. All the songs a played through with a fast furious anger (Their Anger at the music of their time and the society of the 60's/70's. Anger that todays songs just seem to spurt out without any true feeling. Comparing the Pistols with the music in the charts now just shows how LAME most of todays bands are. The best songs, although they are all great, have to be 'Holidays in the Sun', 'Bodies', and of course 'God save the Queen' and 'Anarchy in the UK'. If you get any Pistols album this has to be it, it contains the best sample of the Pistols talents. Ridme

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Premier, premier subject - get this album if you never buy anything else - history in the making. The Sex Pistols were one of those once in a lifetime happenings. They weren't just a band, they were a moment, a movement, a phenomenon, a brash outpouring of a generation's rage and bitterness, a revolution, a barking, sneering scream of cynicism. They were IT. All that mattered. Period. In the late 1970's there was an amazing coming together of a million minor events, and the snotty, chaotic, angry little group of people from whom the Pistols and a thousand other lesser known acts emerged were prepared to add their mark to history. They did so in a colourful, energetic, violent fashion, daubing their slogans of change indelibly on the awesome beast that is the music business and the world was never quite the same again. In a lifespan of a little over three years, the Sex Pistols generated a million more column inches than anyone who had gone before them. They scared people, not so much with their green hair, loud rock music and unconventional clothes, but with their whole ATTITUDE. THEY MEANT IT, MAAAAN! But attitude alone, without form and substance, would have meant nothing and 'Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols' was attitude made material, a brilliant piece of rock and roll. Forget punk rock and whether the Pistols were the real deal, this was first and foremost a major rock album, by a major rock band. There are schools of thought which suggest that America’s Ramones, the cartoon family, were the real gods of punk rock, with their buzz saw two minute epic comic cuts, but that particular argument misses the point. ‘Tain’t about to punk or not to punk. What matters is not the genre and orthodoxy, but the spirit, the mood, the intention, the passion - and this lot had all that in spades, plus a great deal more. I actually prefer the 'Kiss This' CD to the original album, because as well as the twelve tracks on 'Bollocks', it also contains the B-sides of the first four singles, plus 1960's covers 'Stepping Stone' and '(Don't Give Me) No Lip (Child)', although it does end in a trough with Vicious' 'My Way' and the Jones-fronted pop hit 'Silly Thing'. Oh well, you can always fast forward! The legend of the Pistols is well known - how a small time entrepreneur called Malcolm McLaren returned to England and his clothes shop in London after a spell in the US as manager of trashy, glam rock cult act the New York Dolls, with their own bona fide rock superstars in David Johansen and Johnny Thunders, the epitome of the 'hope I die before I get old' mentality - how McLaren put together a band of ne'er do wells who hung around his shop, thuggish guitarist Steve Jones and his dim witted drumming friend Paul Cook and Glen Matlock on bass - how young John Lydon got the gig as singer after miming to Alice Cooper's 'School's Out' on the jukebox - how McLaren renamed him Rotten because of his discoloured teeth - how EMI signed the band, released the awesome 'Anarchy In The UK' single, then swiftly pulled the single and dumped the band after their controversial appearance with Bill Grundy on the Today television programme - how Matlock was discarded for his Beatle loving tendencies and replaced by Lydon's mate, the ironically named Sid Vicious - how A&M stepped in, then just as quickly stepped out after a riotous party - how Richard Branson's Virgin Records finally gave the Pistols a home that cared - how the 'God Save The Queen' single was unjustly robbed of the No 1 chart position during the height of Jubilee celebrations - how 'Pretty Vacant' finally saw the Pistols break through onto Top of the Pops - BRILLIANT, BRILLIANT memories. Life was good and we had something to rebe l against. We also had something that was ours, something which was despised and feared by the establishment. "What are you rebelling against, son?" "Dunno, what you got?" The Pistols were the first and the biggest and quickly spawned a whole new wave of like minded individuals, good, bad and indifferent and, very occasionally, superb. Virgin Records were soon ready to issue the band's debut album, the charmingly titled 'Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols', whose title sparked off a whole new set of hysterical headlines and media over reaction. At the time it was impossible to judge the album on its merits - you either loved it because you loved punk, or you hated it because you hated punk, there was nothing in between. However, with the perspective and distance of history, it's possible to see 'Bollocks' for what it is, just the spunkiest, hardest slab of rock music you could wish for. It is all grinding, blasting guitar, blocked rhythm chops, swirling lead lines, battering drums and bass, with Jones filling in for the musically inept Vicious. Over it all shines the baleful glare of Rotten, the yowling, bawling, sneering, cynical bite and the most malevolent cackle in rock. The songs are great, the playing raw and beefy and the whole total excitement. Drums are pounding and supportive and the bass at best functional. It is the ultimate rock guitar tricks of Steve Jones, his easy acceptance of the New Wave guitar hero mantle and the trademark style he adopted that holds the centre stage all in its sway. It scorches the earth, setting the scene perfectly for the Fagin of rock music to jab holes with his dirty fingers in the stodgy mass of modern life and extract the maximum amount of urine from his targets, the poor dumb serfs. The Pistols were never as good again as they were at the time of this album. They quickly disintegrated as Vicious died and Lydon reinvented himself, taking a new direction with PiL. He left Cook, Jones and Malcy to embarrass themselves with the ill fated ‘Who Killed Bambi?’ project and collaboration with Ronnie Biggs. The Pistols phenomenon collapsed rapidly into farce and a recycling of substandard offerings, but for a while there, between 1975 and 1977, our hopes knew no bounds…. The boy looked at Johnny, and he gobbed in his face... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ‘Holidays In The Sun’ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH Ja-JANG..... Ja-JANG..... Ja-JANG..... Ja-JANG..... BRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! Wow Wow Wow - Nee nurr Nee nurr Nurr Wow Wow Wow - Nee nurr Nee nurr Nurr “A CHEAP HOLIDAY IN OTHER PEOPLE’S MISEREEEEE….” The album kicks off with the Pistols' fourth single, which is widely accepted as being the weakest of the bunch. However, that's no real disgrace and in less spectacular company, 'Holidays In The Sun' would have been an exceptional track. The intro was always thought to be a lift from Paul Weller’s ‘In The City’, the first single by The Jam, but it quickly moves into brilliant ‘Pistol-ese’. Kicking off with mock army marching, it actually sounds more like someone crunching cornflakes - oh, you fearsome gits! - before Rotten arrives mockingly on the scene to recount some of his finer stories, all global apocalypse which namechecks two of the world's greatest horrors, Belsen and the Berlin Wall. It's actually quite a stunning piece of rock when one hears it in its own right, rather than just as a part of the album. Rotten’s vocals are amazing - he comes across (as on many of the other tracks) as a proper RADA trained ACK-TOOR playing Fagin, with some amazing EE-NUNN-CEE-ATION. The man’s a diamond, a one off, an evil soothsayer who cherishes, relishes and spits out every syllable, every pause. What price John Lydon as one of the three sisters in Macbeth - “Hubble bubble, toil and trouble.” "A cheap holiday in other people's misery ! I don't wanna holiday in the sun, I wanna go to the new Belsen, I wanna see some history cos now I got a reasonable economy! Now I got a reason, Now I got reason and I'm still waiting, Now I got a reason, Now I got a reason to be waiting at the Berlin wall. Sensurround sound in a two inch wall, I was waiting for the communist call. I didn't ask for sunshine and I got World War Three, I'm looking over the wall and they're looking at me! They're staring all night and they're staring all day. Claustrophobia, there's too much paranoia, there's too many closets, when will we fall? Cheap dialogue, cheap essential scenery." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ‘Bodies’ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This was one of the newer songs on the album, penned after the departure of Matlock and it ain’t got the class of some of the early stuff, leaping too quickly for the easy shock horror of swear words. It just boils over with evil and unpleasantness and graphic description of abortion. It’s one of the more unhealthy little pieces here, but is a marvellous slab of very raw punk with abrasive guitar smashing all over the place behind Rotten’s spiteful little diatribe. There’s no quarter given here and no apologies are offered. The Pistols simply didn’t care for the sensibilities of a nation. “ She was a girl from Birmingham, She’d just had an abortion. She was a case of insanity, Her name was Pauline she lived in a tree. She was a no one who killed her baby. She sent her letters from the country. She was an animal, She was a bloody disgrace! Body, I'm not an animal! Dragged on a table in a factory, Illegitimate place to be. In a packet in a lavatory, die, little baby SCREAMING!” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ‘No Feelings’ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The High God of Punk declares his mission statement and reminds us (as if we could forget), “I’m in love with myself, my beautiful self.” But as ever, it’s Rotten in his best p*** taking mood and sending his public persona up something rotten. It cracks along at a fair old pace and Rotten’s speed rant effectively writes off the entire population of the western world as being worthless objects of derision. “I've seen you in the mirror when the story began and I fell in love with you, I love yer mortal sin. Yer brains are locked away but I love your company. I only ever leave you when you got no money. I got no emotions for anybody else, you better understand I'm in love with my self, my beautiful self. … I'm watching all the rubbish, you're wasting my time. I look around your house and there's nothing to steal, I kick you in the brains when you get down to kneel and pray, you pray to your god.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 'Liar' ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A pretty throwaway sort of track this, which is a fairly straightforward denunciation of dishonesty. It’s inconsequential but keeps things moving. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 'Problems' ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A Rotten rant of the highest order which mainly consists of him telling the listener that unless they try and take responsibility for sorting out the problems they face in their everyday life then they are part of the problem themselves. It’s a plea for self determination and a clarion call for action. The song is seen by many as a negative bleat, but ‘Problems’ is actually one of the most positive songs of the punk era. Most people saw Rotten as a negative whinging git, but he’s one of the most positive human beings that there has ever been - it’s just that he was never one for suffering fools gladly. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 'God Save The Queen' ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After the ‘Anarchy’ single, the Pistols roared back with the controversial ‘God Save The Queen’ single, first on A&M and then with Virgin. It was put out with the stated intent of shaking up all the Little England royalists at the time of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee celebrations and sparked off a hysterical backlash against the Pistols during the Summer of Hate. There was much rigging of charts in order to prevent the single making number one and it’s clear that there was no way that the pillars of the establishment would allow this song to triumph during Jubilee Week. It was a massive amount of fuss over nothing and shows exactly how tenuous was the powers that be’s grip on reality. “Oh dear, Mabel, that frightful chap might incite a riot and bring down the government. The cover’s got a picture of the Queen with a safety pin through her nose - it’s disgraceful…” Lydon got some frightful beatings during the Jubilee celebrations but must have been laughing his socks off at the amount of power that people seemed to think he had. All I hear is one excellent track that eloquently describes life for the young in the second half of the 1970’s and does so in exciting, strident fashion. “God save the queen, the fascist regime, they made you a moron, potential H-bomb. God save the queen, she ain't no human being, there is no future in England’s dreaming. Don't be told what you want, don't be told what you need, there's no future, no future, no future for you. God save the queen, we mean it man, we love our queen, God saves. God save the queen, 'cos tourists are money and our figurehead is not what she seems. Oh god save history, God save your mad parade, oh lord God have mercy, all crimes are paid. When there's no future how can there be sin? We're the flowers in the dustbin, we're the poison in your human machine, we're the future, your future.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 'Seventeen' ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Also widely known as ‘I’m A Lazy Sod’, ‘Seventeen’ is one of punk rock’s anthems and is supposedly written with Vicious in mind. It’s a petty little put down. “You're only twentynine, got a lot to learn but when your mummy dies she will not return. We like noise it's our choice, it's what we wanna do. We don't care about long hair, I don't wear flares. See my face, not a trace, no reality. I don't work, I just speed, that's all I need. I'm a lazy sod.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 'Anarchy In The UK' ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The jagged salvo of opening guitar chords that were SOOOOOOOO right….. “Right … NOW! HA HA HA HA HA HA!” The evil chuckle that was Rotten’s signature ushered in a brave new world as the Pistols signalled their intention to raze to the ground what had gone before. ‘Anarchy In the UK’ was the debut, the call to arms, the expression of interest after which nothing would be quite the same again, and indeed it has the legend ‘CLASSIC’ seeping out of all its pores. “I am an antichrist, I am an anarchist. Don't know what I want but I know how to get it, I wanna destroy the passerby 'cause I wanna be anarchy, no dogsbody. Anarchy for the UK, it's coming … your future dream is a shopping scheme … anarchy, in the city. How many ways to get what you want. I use the best, I use the rest, I use the NME, I use anarchy … is this the MPLA or is this the UDA or is this the IRA, I thought it was the UK or just another country, another council tenancy.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 'Sub-Mission' ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Without doubt, this is one of my all time favourite tracks. It’s got a plodding, moody feel with Jones going rifferama and Lydon playing voice games in the way that he would later fully perfect with Public Image. The lyrics arise from a fertile cross mix of the twin themes of bondage and life beneath the waves. The chopped semi-reggae rhythms and blocked riffing guitar of Jones combine with the hi hat of Cook to lay down a glorious framework and it’s all a very sleazy, grinding classic. Horror of horrors - you even get Rotten singing like yer everyday orthodox vocalist. “I'm on a submarine mission for you baby. I feel the way you were going. I picked you up on my TV-screen, I feel your undercurrent flowing, submission, going down, down, dragging me down. Submission, I can't tell ya what i've found. You've got me pretty deep, baby, I can't figure out your watery love. I gotta solve your mystery, you’re sitting it out in heaven above … there's a mystery under the sea, under the water, come share it.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 'Pretty Vacant' ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The distinctive guitar signature of Steve Jones which kicked off their third single is another of those candidates for ‘Great Moments In Rock’ on this album. The chiming progression before Cook’s drums hammer in is one of the best remembered moments in the Pistols’ history. Rock and roll bliss. “There's no point in asking you'll get no reply, oh just remember, don't decide. I got no reason, it's all too much, you'll always find us out to lunch. Oh we're so pretty, oh so pretty, we're vacant, oh we're so pretty, oh so pretty, vacant. Don't ask us to attend 'cos we're not all there. Oh don't pretend 'cos I don't care. I don't believe illusions 'cos too much is for real, so stop your cheap comment 'cos we know what we feel.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 'New York' ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Seen as a dig at the Dolls and a celebration at their drugged up lifestyle, the Pistols successfully spread their wings musically on this number and it’s in similar vein to ‘Sub-Mission’ with more of a rolling roam around the place than the straightforward frontal assault of many of the tracks on the album. It’s also slower and more restrained than most of the other stuff and is a bloody triumph, a sludgy plod around the seamy underbelly of life. The playing of the Pistols on this song exploded forever the myth that they couldn’t play their instruments. “An imitation from New York, you're made in Japan from cheese and chalk. You're hippy tarts hero 'cos you put on a bad show, you put on a bad show, oh don't it show. Still out on those pills oh do you remember? Think it's swell playing Max's Kansas. You're looking bored and you're acting flash with nothing in your gut you better keep yer mouth shut, you better keep yer mouth shut in a rut … Four years on you still look the same, I think it’s about time you changed your brain. You're just a pile of shit, you're coming to this, ya poor little faggot you're sealed with a kiss. Kiss me.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 'EMI' ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There had to be a song about the Pistols’ relationship with record companies and this is it. I don’t think it’s that successful a track or adds much to the album apart from Rotten’s terse kiss off - “Goodbye, A&M, rasp…” EMI were an easy target for the band and it really is just a case of Sex-Pistols-By-Numbers here, although nothing the Pistols did while Rotten was still around was without its merits. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A few of the tracks here let slip the flawless tag, but judged as a whole, ‘Bollocks’ is wonderful party music, a memorable mish mash of punk attitude and Sixties guitar, all given purpose and meaning by the performing monkey with the quick wit and an eye for the absurd. The nemesis of hecklers, there has never been a funnier wit or more charismatic stage performer than Johnny Rotten and this album is his perfect showcase. Wittier and sharper than The Clash, more fun than The Jam, more focused than The Damned and younger than The Stranglers, deeper than the cartoonish Ramones, The Sex Pistols bestrode the world like a colossus and left behind them a classic album. TO BE RECOMMENDED

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OK, so they were the ones who made punk overground and shocked the nation's adults when my dear old daddy was still only a teenager (I know, shocking), but what I want to know if anyone thinks they really are not good? I do like them, but listening to their album the other day I suddenly realised that all of the songs sound similar, and that they probably use the same bass lines and drum beats for everything. But they'e still cool because of their attitude, and because they offend the queen (heh heh). I'm not saying this is a bad album, I think it was a great investment and I love listening to it, but you just have to think whether you like it for their attitude and not the music.Now I'm going to get loads of hate male from people who liked it before I was born! My favourite song on the album is God save the Queen, and makes good for pogoing practice! Still - respect!

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An era defining collection of lurching Small Faces-via-The New York Dolls guitar bluster, galloping glam-rock drums and John Lydon's primal scream/primary school sneer, Never Mind The Bollocks still lunges wildly from the speakers nearly a quarter of a century after its release. Steve Jones' multi-layered Gibson Les Pauls have been inherited by Noel Gallagher, and bassist Glen Matlock's melodic contributions belie manager Malcolm McClaren's risible, self-aggrandising claim that the band couldn't play. Released a good two years after the band's initial Blitzkreig on the nation's moral high ground and after singles Anarchy In The UK, God Save The Queen and Pretty Vacant had done their evangelical work, NMTB was actually thought by October '77s more Stalinist observers to be a tad recherche- The Clash and The Damned having already dispatched their LPs the previous spring. The Sex Pistols were otherwise engaged in joining and leaving record companies at the Machiavellian whim of McClaren or being back-balled by provincial Britain's worshipful mayors. Even the nowadays innocuous-sounding title caused a delay. Still, tardy or not, few could deny the LPs unrelating punch nor tis litany of spine-tingling moments:from the magisterial intro of Holidys In The Sun to the gleefully spiteful chorus of EMI. Producer Chris Thomas laboured hard to capture the band's visceral live incarnation. He was also charged with keeping volatile egos from erupting. Rotten's sand-paper larynx from packing up and Sid Vicious away from an instrument. He deserves a medal. Despite its partly American-derived sound, the album is imbued with a quintessentially London ambience, palpable as much as Rotten's dropped aitches as in God Save The Queen's jubilee-dissing. At times you can practically smell the stewed tea and HP sauce aroma of pre-Thatcher Britain.

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THIS is proper punk, take no notice when people start gabbing on about Blink 182 or Green Day (although I do like Green Day!) – The Sex Pistols is what Punk was all about! I can't imagine where Rock music would be today without the Sex Pistols. While not as musically influential, the Pistols are every bit as important as Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin. It was all about attitude, pure and simple. The Sex Pistols were short lived. Formed in 1976, and gone again in 1978. In that time, they managed just one studio album. Just before the recording of this album, the band sacked the original bass player Glen Matlock, and hired Sid Vicious. Only one problem - Sid couldn't play a note(but he did look good) and despite some lessons, he didn't get any better either. So the band was forced to hire Matlock back as a studio musician. He appears on most of the songs, but we will never know for sure who is who. What kind of band would hire a bass player who couldn't play? The kind who just don't care about anything. Sid was a fan of the band, and was friends with singer Johnny Rotten. He had the attitude to stand on the stage ~ what else did he need? Never Mind The Bollocks begins with 'Holidays in the sun'. This is a fast paced romp with a great beat. If you ever get the chance, listen to this song played by Skid Row. (you can find that on the album 'Stairway to Heaven, Highway to Hell'.) 'Bodies' is the next song, and one of my favourites. It's pounding punk at it's finest. The lyrical content isn't for everyone, as the song is about pro-abortion. Another great song is 'No Feelings'. It's just everything punk music needs to be. The I-Hate-The-World lyrics, don't give a shit music, and the who cares outlook. 'God Save the Queen' is one of their more popular songs. Banned on the B.B.C. It caused quite a controvers y in it's day. Of course, all these lyrics are mild by todays standards, but 20 years ago... Everybody knows the song 'Anarchy in the U.K.' because it seems to be one of the most covered songs ever. Recently one of the Spice Girls (Mel C) was reported as singing this song live (you go girl!). Also another song that caused quite a stir way back when. It was the first single the band released. The record label got nervous at the public outcry, and dropped the band. My favourite song would be 'Sub-Mission'. It's a slower paced song, which just has a great groove to it. I'm betting Matlock played bass on this one... This is a wonderfully horrifying album. One of the essential punk classics. Its such a pretty mess, and should be heard by everyone If you listen to hard rock, heavy metal, or punk, you owe it to yourself to check this album out. They may not have been much of musicians, but they sure could slap a song together.

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This must be a record for all collections, except possibly your mums or Dads. This record was, in its time the best thing to hit the record shelves in years. Its rock and Roll at its worst but still manages to conjour up those distant memories of our younger days. Those days when we hated anything and everything in authority. The album contains 12 tracks and is quite short by modern standards but every track is a winner. From Holidays in the Sun to Pretty vacant. They are all on this album. True it does sound a little dated now but if you can pick it up cheap then do because it is certainly one that you will play from time to time. Ready for it: "I am an anti-Christ"